Effects of economic globalization, environment-related technology innovation, and industrial structure change on the ecological footprint of top 10 Asian technological innovation countries

This study investigates how economic globalization, innovations in environment-related technology, shifts in industrial structure, and GDP collectively influence the ecological footprint of the top 10 Asian countries known for technological innovation from 1999 to 2018. Results show that economic globalization, industrial structure change, and GDP are important determinants of ecological footprint. Greater economic globalization and GDP growth harm the environment and require more resources. However, industrial structure change toward services ameliorates environment pressure. Uni-directional causality was established from globalization to ecological footprint, from ecological footprint to industrial structure change, and from GDP to industrial structure change. In addition, bidirectional causalities were also confirmed: between GDP and ecological footprint, between GDP and environment-related technology innovation, between economic globalization and GDP, and between environment-related technology innovation and ecological footprint. Finally, this study recommends that governments should enhance technological innovation, encourage industrial structure change towards high-value-added service industries, and use low-carbon energy in the pursuit of globalization. These results have notable implications for energy policy and economic sustainability.